Redemption
by thisvexesme
Summary: Velvet hated Cardin, but she didn't know she needed him. Set during the Fall of Beacon


_Redemption_

Velvet was defeated. She had run out of weapons. Piles of dead Grimm lay at her feet, but the horde kept advancing. She had tried running, but her short legs were on the brink of giving out.

The Grimm had invaded Beacon Academy, let in by a rogue terrorist organization made of "Faunus-rights activists", who were tired of being pushed down by the government. She thought it was ironic that she was to be killed by her own race, one she had until two days prior assumed to be peaceful and all-loving.

Velvet tripped over an exposed piece of metal jutting out of the destroyed food court, a sharp pain running up her leg. She tried to stand up, but her ankle shouted its displeasure and dragged her back onto the dirty ground. The Grimm were advancing slowly upon her, as if savouring the moment. Three huge black Ursas carefully prodded over to her as she backed up against a wall. The largest black bear crawled up to her face, its red eyes glaring deeply into her soul. It paused for a second, snorting and kicking up dust. Velvet shut her eyes, and the beast roared in her face, its pungent breath almost making her vomit.

The large creature reared up onto its hind legs and raised a huge clawed paw into the air. Velvet could clearly see the cuts and gashes other students must have made in their useless efforts to down the beast. In its large muscular shoulder, there protruded one of the wrist-blades normally worn by Fox Alistair, a trail of black blood leaking from the wound. The animal before her made to slam its paw down onto her. She closed her eyes, and waited for the end.

But it never came.

She opened her eyes, and through the storm of tears, saw a large man with ginger hair had stood himself before her, one arm holding the furious Grimm's paw up off the two of them, the other holding a brutal looking mace. She looked at the man's face, her two pairs of ears both ringing. He appeared to be shouting something at her...

"RUN!" he yelled at the timid rabbit-faunus, and she struggled to crawl away from the massive boy. Turning her head back to the beast, she watched the ginger boy swing the mace into the chin of the lead Ursa, knocking the two-tonne creature backward a good twenty feet. Leaping after the black bear, the boy let out an unholy battle cry and smashed the mace through the head of the Ursa. His identity had just now come to the her, and she watched as Cardin Winchester killed the large Ursa.

No, Cardin _destroyed_ the Ursa. His eyes were burning as he quickly and effortlessly dealt with the two smaller Ursas that had come in with their leader. His enormous strength allowing him to put both down in one swing of the huge medieval weapon. His eyes fell on the scared girl in the corner, and he tried to call out to her, reaching a hand out.

"Velvet!"

But he was unable to say anymore as a huge Beowolf knocked him sideways out of nowhere, causing him to drop his weapon. The large black dog bit into Cardin's shoulder, sharp teeth threatening to tear his arm off. Velvet screamed at the sight. She was watching the boy who bullied her be killed. She briefly thought about letting it happen.

She hadn't realized she had stood up. Nor that she had run over to the large Beowolf. Or that she had picked up Cardin's weapon. She only realized she had moved at all when the Grimm's blood had splattered on her face and covered her dirty uniform. She stared down at the injured boy, who stared back up at her. She brandished his weapon at him, the sharp point inches from his face.

"I haven't forgiven you."

Cardin clutched his bleeding shoulder and batted the mace away from his face. "You don't have to. All you _have_ to do is find us a way out of here" he responded, propping himself up. Velvet helped the bleeding boy to his feet and slung one of his tree trunk arms over her shoulder, her eyes scanning the destroyed courtyard for a means of escape. Off to one side, she spotted a damaged and dirty Vale General Hospital branded ambulance, which she desperately hoped still ran. If it didn't she was sure she could use the truck's CB radio to call for help. Hobbling the two of them over, she wrenched the passenger door open and deposited the lethargic boy into the seat. Quickly scrambling over to the left side of the cab, she flung the door open and leaped inside.

Fumbling around on the truck's plastic steering column, she found the key and turned. The heavy industrial engine sputtered, no doubt a little plugged up with ash and dust from the surrounding fires, but it eventually coughed into life. Sparing no second to gloat, she wrenched the heavy column-shifter into reverse and hit the accelerator. The big van shunted backwards and collided with some piece of rubble. Dropping the lever into drive, she surged the van forward, manoeuvring through the destroyed courtyard.

"Hey, drive more carefully." Cardin said from his seat, wheezing from his tired and bleeding lungs. "It's like you're trying to kill me."

Velvet swerved the van to the right and hit a small crater with the right hand wheels, nearly launching Cardin out of his seat. She had hated this boy, why was she helping him? _Why had he helped her?_ Cardin didn't give her a chance to speak.

"I want to apologize for my actions. I can understand why you must hate me. You aren't a freak. You're a person. And it took me watching my team die to see that." Velvet looked at him, horrified by the last statement. "Your... team?" She remembered how the four members of team CRDL had bullied her during her first two years at the school. Or, at least she had thought it had been the four of them.

Velvet remembered how the Cardin led his team in bullying her...but she never remembered him actually saying anything or laying his hands on her.

 _She had just associated his imposing presence with his team's actions._

"They're dead?" she asked weakly, driving the van to the outskirts of Beacon's campus.

"Good fucking riddance" the bleeding boy replied. "They ran like cowards. Swept up in the gunfire from the terrorists."

She turned her head to look at him, but he was no longer in his seat. A loud masculine yell followed by the definite screech of a Nevermore as it swooped down toward the ambulance. Cardin had stood himself on the roof of the white van. The enormous bird descended on the boy, and with one destructive swoop, sent the huge bird into a building, killing it. A whole flock of Nevermores dropped from the smoke filled sky.

"Faster!" Cardin shouted, and Velvet put her foot down, the big ten-cylinder engine pulling the van faster away from the burning campus. Carding swung his mace left and right, batting the large black birds away as best he could, his right arm still badly injured. One of the Nevermores grabbed the huge weapon in its mouth, and Cardin quickly tossed the bird into two others, watching them smash into a huge tower. Velvet wrenched the van around a corner, tires screeching on the cobblestone ground. They were quickly approaching the science building, and Velvet saw nowhere she could turn. It was a dead end. Then, as if the universe had it in for them, a giant Beringel stood in the road.

Velvet stuck her head out the window of the van, and shouted to get Cardin's attention. With one last swipe at the remaining Nevermore, he sent it into the pavement, where it's vile heart beat it's last. Cardin looked back forward, and slid himself onto the hood of the van, and shouted for her to keep advancing. The Beringel roared at the approaching vehicle. Cardin roared back, mace raised. The large ape-like beast charged the truck and Velvet fought every fibre of her being to keep her foot pressed hard into the go pedal. Just as the huge animal was to be upon them, Cardin swung his mace. It's huge, spiked head collided with the side of the Beringel's armoured head. And knocked it right off.

The Ambulance slammed into the glass face of the science building and skidded across the polished floor, coming to a stop in front of a group of very confused terrorists. Cardin had seen them well before they had even encountered the ape-beast, and had jumped from the hood as the van hit the building. They had little time to speak let alone raise their rifles at the sudden intrusion before the ginger man was upon them, a fierce cry coming from his angry face. In less than two seconds, Cardin had dealt with the group of "freedom" fighters, and he reached down and grabbed the last remaining live one. He tore the despicable mask from the wolf-faunus man's face.

"It's animals like you who give the faunus a bad name" he said angrily into the man's face. "They are a peaceful people, and you've sullied that by killing innocent civilians. You haven't helped anybody. You've created hate. Your bigotry is no better than that of the racists I called my team mates. So when you see Dove, Russel, and Sky in hell..." He paused as he pulled the injured terrorist closer to his face "You can tell them to go fuck themselves."

"Long live the faunus..." the dying man said, fangs bared.

"I was thinking the same thing" Cardin replied, mashing the terrorist's head into the tile floor.

Watching this unfold, Velvet had realized that the man who stood before her didn't hate her or her faunus heritage. She saw a man who wanted _peace._ A man who _detested_ violence towards the minorities, who fought with every fibre of his being to attain equality. She thought back to when he participated in "bullying" her, and realized that Cardin had spent all of his time _controlling_ his racist team members. He had always held back the boys whenever they were about to hit her, quick to say something like 'Saved you that time, freak. Next time you won't be so lucky" But there never was a next time where the hit landed. Cardin had _always_ saved her. She stepped out of the van and made to walk towards him.

"I forgive you" she said, and for the first time in the two years she had known him, Cardin smiled at her.

Then he collapsed. Now it was Cardin that needed saving.

And Velvet was eager to help.


End file.
